Saturday, January 1, 2011

Morning Hep C News and Letters


Lifesaving change for transplant checklist
TRANSPLANT patients are being given the healthy organs of pack-a-day smokers, heavy drinkers and the elderly to give more people on the waiting list a chance of survival.
Surgeons are also transplanting the unaffected body parts of cancer patients and have begun a new registry for donors with hepatitis C.
While donor rates in NSW have risen by a quarter this year - due to reforms and a public awareness campaign - Australia still lags behind many countries, leading doctors to extend the criteria for acceptable donors.
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Thelma Thiel, CEO of the Hepatitis Foundation International explains the functions of the liver and risk behaviors that can cause liver disease on CBS 6 - Good Morning Virginia program. Check out the video of the interview entitled "Hepatitis Awareness"
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January 2011 HEPC Bull Newsletter

Read the hepc.bull -our online monthly newsletter (.pdf)
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IN This Issue:

More AASLD 2010 News
My Story (Daryl) / PHCN Conference Report
Hep C & Me
Hep C on the Internet
Conferences
PegCARE/PegAssist/Neupogen/Compensation
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HEPATITIS C NUTRITION: Foods that Bite, Foods that Fight
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Inside Look
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More AASLD 2010 News

SVR 20 YEARS LATER

We often think our goal is an SVR(Sustained Viral Response), but the long term goal is to prevent Hep-C related deathor disability. This study looked at 103 successfully-treated patients treated beginning in 1984. Biopsies and blood tests were compared before and after. Patients seen since 2007 were evaluated by elastography, a type of liver scan. Three of the original patients had relapsed between just over a half a year up to 6 ½ years after treatment. Of the other100, 45% had GT1, and 53% had GT2 or 3.2% had other genotypes. There was no liver failure or liver cancer. ALTs were 27 U/Land ASTs were 24 U/L, average. All other markers remained good, as well. There were no liver-related deaths, and 97% had maintained their SVR. The study concluded that “SVR is associated with both short term and long-term benefits.”
Source:
www.natap.org/2010/AASLD/AASLD_25.htm
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BMS-790052 + BMS-650032
Bristol-Myers presented results from their protease + NS5A inhibitor trial. The drugs were tested with and without standard therapy, on GT1 null-responders. At 12weeks of therapy, 6 out of 11 patients experienced breakthrough. All were GT-1a. However, the other 5 patients remained undetectable with the two oral drugs alone. It appears that the patients with breakthrough............
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HEPATITIS C NUTRITION:
At one point scientific studies stated that there was no notable harm in taking milk thistle but also did not see any benefit. However new work has demonstrated that at the very least milk thistle is a powerful antioxidant providing benefits to cell health. While milk thistle has more therapeuticpotential than first imagined when refined and administered intravenously, there are some new indications that taking it orally likely reduces fibrosis as well as raising QoL.

Any improvement in QoL is going to increase your chances of fighting HCV. However if there is a potential for negative health consequences from a food or drug it is said to be a contraindication. For example when you take interferon and eat high fat food, fat is going to be a contraindication for the interferon since fat temporarily fertilizes the virus we are trying to fight. Also fat deposits in the liver have been shown to hamper treatment success and it is especially harmful to those with HIV coinfection.......

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From NATAP
(12/30/10)

New York Magazine Top Infectious Disease Doctors in NYC 2010 List -

More Hep C Articles...

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Ten Neglected Points
by Articleman

12/31/2010
The Silent Hepatitis C Crisis. Hepatitis C is rampant among American prison inmates. While the general population has it at an incidence of roughly 2%, prison populations have it at rates ranging from 28% to 30% to 40%, depending on who you ask or read. To be sure, the percentage of inmates who enter prison with it is substantially higher than the percentage of infections among the general public. But many are infected in prison, and given the lack of treatment in prison, we are seeing long-term catastrophic liver failures and illnesses among persons late in their prison terms and after they are released back into society. While treatment on the front end is expensive, it is more expensive on the back end, when livers and lives are destroyed, and when the ill person can go on to infect others as well. This is a huge public health problem that no one can be bothered to discuss.

Last update 01/01/2011 11:00:00 AM (GMT+7)


Vietnam successfully conducts second liver transplantation for adult

VietNamNet Bridge – Hanoi-based Vietnam-Germany Hospital has successfully performed liver transplantation for a 44-year-old man from the central city of Da Nang in a 13-hour surgery.

The liver donor is the patient’s cousin, who is 34 years old.

Vietnam has carried out many liver transplantations but all of them were on children. This is the second liver transplantation on an adult in Vietnam, according to Dr. Nguyen Tien Quyet, director of the Vietnam-Germany Hospital.

Liver transplantation for adults is much more complicated and risky than for children because doctors have to take up at least half of the liver of the donor while it is only one third for children.

The first adult liver transplantation was in late 2007, also conducted at the Vietnam-Germany Hospital

“Besides the harmony of indexes between the donor and the recipient, the weight of liver is very important. In some case, the weight of liver of the donor is not enough for the recipient,” Quyet said.

The patient has recovered after the operation.

In May 2010, this hospital successfully performed liver, kidney and heart valve transplantations, using donated organs of a dead person.

Quyet said that Vietnam’s viscera transplantation technique is not behind any country in the world. Notably, the cost for viscera transplantation in Vietnam is very cheap, equivalent to one third of the region and the world.

However, the common problem is the scarcity of viscera for transplantation. In the world, up to 90 percent of viscera come from dead people while 90 percent of viscera for transplantation in Vietnam come from the living people.

Vietnam is about to build a centre to coordinate viscera transplantation.

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Stem Cells
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Scripps Scientists home in on chemicals to reprogramme cells news
Breaking new groundScientists have known for at least 50 years that a cell's identity is reversible if given the right signal - cells go forward to become mature, functional cells or they can go backward to become primitive cells. In order for cellular reprogramming to be safe and practical enough to use in cell therapy, researchers have sought an efficient, reliable way to trigger the reprogramming process


What Are Stem Cells ?
Yesterday, December 31, 2010, 7:35:06 PM


• All stem cells can divide many times without turning into specialized cells. In a laboratory, a small batch of stem cells can multiply over many months and yield millions of cells.

• Embryonic stem cells can develop into any of the more than 200 types of cells found in the human body.

• Embryonic stem cells can be produced fairly easily in the laboratory, by cell division.

• Adult stem cells (also called somatic stem cells) are found in specific tissues of the body. Usually, they develop only into the type of cells needed in those tissues. Adult stem cells have been found in the brain, bone marrow, blood, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, and liver.

• Adult stem cells are difficult to isolate from the surrounding specialized cells, and scientists haven’t yet learned how to grow them in the laboratory. This makes them less promising for therapies that would involve replacing damaged tissues with tissues grown from stem cells. However, certain adult stem cells are already being used in medical therapy: for example, in bone marrow transplants for leukemia patients. (Bone marrow contains stem cells that produce blood cells.)


Liver: Stem Cells Updates and News 2011
Yesterday, December 31, 2010, 7:21:52 PM
Patients who are displaying symptoms of liver cirrhosis are involved in the trial Once harvested, the cells are purified, so that a high concentration of the right type of stem cells can be injected back into the patient's blood stream. The Repeated Autologous Infusions of Stem Cells in Cirrhosis, or 'Realistic' trial, will compare the current standard treatment to both the effect of giving GCSF injections on their own and giving the injections, collecting the stem cells and putting them back into the bloodstream. Dr Philip Newsome, from the Centre for Liver Research at Birmingham University, is the clinical leader for the trial.

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Pharmaceutical News

Roche acquires Marcadia Biotech
Roche beat the end of year holiday rush yesterday by acquring Marcadia Biotech - probably the last pharma deal of 2010. Marcadia is located in Carmel, IN and was founded by former Lilly executives.
Roche acquires Marcadia Biotech Indianapolis Business Journal IBJ.com.

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New Drugs 2010 - Fewest FDA Approvals since 2007
Here's a piece republished in its entirety from Bloomberg.
Twenty-one new drugs were approved in the U.S. this year, the fewest since 2007, as the Food and Drug Administration showed more willingness to delay or reject medicines with potential safety risks.
The tally, compiled by Bloomberg from an FDA database, compares with 25 approvals last year and 24 in 2008, according to the FDA’s website. Nineteen new drugs were cleared in 2007, the fewest in 24 years.

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New Year !

The List: Top New Year's resolutions

Telaprevir Makes The List: New year, new science

2011: Good News For Hepatitis C Patients

Scripps Research scientists identify key interaction in hepatitis C virus

http://hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2010/12/getting-ready-for-2011-hepatitis-c-new.html

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Infectious Disease

Who Knew ?

Deer-Associated Parapoxvirus Infection Identified
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Parapoxvirus infection, attributable to a unique strain, diagnosed in two deer hunters
THURSDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) --
Parapoxvirus infections were identified in two deer hunters in 2009 and, with deer populations on the rise, the potential for deer-associated parapoxvirus infections may also be increasing, according to a report published in the Dec. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Amira A. Roess, Ph.D., of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues describe the clinical and pathological features of parapoxvirus infection and the phylogenetic relationship of a unique strain of parapoxvirus diagnosed in two deer hunters to other parapoxviruses. Both hunters had cut their fingers while field-dressing deer. DNA sequence analysis revealed that the parapoxvirus infections identified in these deer hunters were likely due to a unique strain of the virus. Individuals with parapoxvirus infection typically present three to seven days after exposure with erythematous maculopapular lesions on the hands that progress over four to eight weeks. The histopathological appearance of the lesions is characterized predominantly by epidermal hyperplasia, with occasional cytoplasmic inclusions, prominent vascular proliferation and dilatation, and mixed inflammatory-cell infiltrates. The authors note that, because the deer population is increasing in the United States, the potential for parapoxvirus infection may be increasing as well. "Anecdotal data suggest that imiquimod may be effective in the treatment of parapoxvirus infection in patients with underlying health conditions, to prevent the spread of virus, autoinoculation, and the need for surgical débridement," the authors write. One author disclosed financial relationships with pharmaceutical and medical companies.
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Upcoming Events:

4th Paris Hepatitis ConferenceParis, France Jan. 17 – Jan. 18, 2011

http://www.colloquium.eu/site/-Homepage,1724-


EASLBerlin, GermanyMarch 30 – April 3, 2011

http://www.easl.eu/


DDWChicago, ILMay 7 – May 10, 2011

http://www.ddw.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=679


HCV 2011 SymposiumSeattle, WA Sept. 8 – 11, 2011

http://www.hcv2011.org/


AASLDSan Francisco, CA Nov. 4 – 8, 2011

http://www.aasld.org/lm/Pages/default.aspx

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